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Fossilization and the Movie 'Fossil' Quiz

Test your knowledge on fossilization processes and the cast of the movie 'Fossil' with this engaging quiz!

#fossils #fossilization #radiometric dating #movie quiz #biological classification

1 In order for an organism to be fossilized, the remains normally need to be covered by ________ as soon as possible.

2 Who played Otto Zimmer in the movie Fossil?

3 Radiometric dating has shown that the earliest known ________ are over 3.4 billion years old.

4 Living fossil is an informal term used for any living ________ which is apparently identical or closely resembles a species previously known only from fossils—that is, it is as if the ancient fossil had 'come to life.'

5 Who played Wake Rosin in the movie Fossil?

6 ________ concurred with Aristotle's view that fossils were the remains of ancient life.

7 Who played Lt. Simpsom-Spicer in the movie Fossil?

8 What role did Eric Abrams play in the movie Fossil?

9 Who played James Lewis in the movie Fossil?

10 Who played Charles Becker in the movie Fossil?

đź’ˇ Interesting Facts

  • the Ediacaran organism Eoandromeda may represent the earliest animal fossil unless it turns out to be an alga.
  • the 60 million years old Carmelo Formation (pictured) is made out of thousands of layers of volcanic pebbles, sandstone and mudstone with fossils.
  • the extinct fir species Abies milleri, known from Early Eocene fossils (pictured) found in Ferry County, Washington, is considered the oldest confirmed record for the fir genus.
  • the extinct snakefly genus Proraphidia is known from fossils found in Spain, England, and Kazakhstan.
  • the fossil butterfly Prodryas persephone (engraving pictured) is so well preserved that individual wing scales can be seen.
  • eighty years on, scientists are still debating whether the Palæozoic fossils known as Chitinozoans (SEM image pictured) represent plants, animals or eggs.
  • during an 1864 expedition to resupply Army posts in eastern Oregon, Captain John M. Drake discovered fossils in the area that is now the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.
  • although related to modern filter feeding baleen whales, the recently discovered prehistoric whale Janjucetus had large serrated teeth implying that it fed on large fish or even sharks.
  • although the Collared Lory is only found in Fiji today, fossil evidence shows that it once existed in Tonga and was extirpated by human settlers.
  • although the first Callawayasaurus fossil was discovered in 1962, it was not until 1999 that they were recognized as a separate genus.
  • despite being known from many specimens, the fossil Fuxianhuia (pictured) remains one of the most controversial Cambrian arthropods.
  • the fossil horse Scaphohippus became extinct when tectonic barriers between the Great Plains and Great Basin of North America disappeared about 13 million years ago.
  • the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California contains an ancient seabed with fossils of various marine lifeforms, such as sand dollars and bivalves.
  • the first Styxosaurus fossil to be discovered had about 250 stones in its stomach that it probably swallowed for ballast.
  • the first fossilised dinosaur eggs found in the world, which are also the oldest dinosaur embryos ever discovered, belong to Massospondylus and were found in Golden Gate Highlands National Park, South Africa in 1978.
  • the only surviving fossils of Aegyptosaurus were destroyed in a 1944 bombing raid on Munich, Germany during World War II.
  • the sixteen eight-million-year-old cypresses found in Northern Hungary in 2007 had been preserved without being fossilized.
  • the whorl snail Nesopupa turtoni, previously known only as a fossil, was discovered alive in 2003 in the Prosperous Bay Plain area of Saint Helena.
  • the discovery of 189 fossils of the mid-Cambrian Odontogriphus thrust it into the centre of a heated debate about the evolution of molluscs, annelids and brachiopods.
  • the dinosaur fossil Dakota is so well-preserved it has caused researchers to revise their estimates of the appearance, size, and speed of a whole group of dinosaurs known as hadrosaurs.
  • the Burgsvik beds, a geological formation exposed on Gotland, Sweden, contain the only fossil euglenid ever discovered.
  • the Coast Range Arc is the largest continental volcanic arc fossil in the world and the largest granite projection in North America.
  • the Delaware Basin in Texas contains fossilised coral reefs from the Permian era.
  • the geology of London includes abundant fossilized animal remains.
  • although it is now endemic to Fiji, fossils attributed to the Fiji Goshawk have been found in Ę»Eua, Tonga.
  • a team of archaeologists discovered a fossilized Han Solo in the rocks of China.
  • Fossil Cycad National Monument, established in South Dakota in 1922, was withdrawn as a national monument in 1956 because all of the visible fossils had been stolen.
  • fossils from the Paleocene-age CerrejĂłn Formation in Colombia are the earliest record of Neotropical rainforests.
  • Orsten, fossil-bearing lagerstätten in Sweden and elsewhere, are called "stinking stones" from organic content that has been preserved since the Cambrian Period.
  • Poricy Park in New Jersey is known for allowing limited collecting at its Cretaceous-era fossil shell beds.
  • Sue (pictured) is the largest, most complete, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever found.
  • fossilised crinoid columnals from Lindisfarne which were strung together as a necklace or rosary became known as St Cuthbert's beads.
  • fossil specimens of the extinct scorpionfly family Dinopanorpidae, which includes Dinopanorpa and Dinokanaga, sometimes have preserved dark with light to clear color patterning.
  • Conrad Gessner's 1551 book Historiae animalium is the first use of fossil illustrations (pictured).
  • fossil collectors often call Polyptychoceras vancouverensis the "paperclip ammonite" or the "candy cane", due to its shape.
  • fossil evidence suggests that the palm tribe Cryosophileae evolved in the northern hemisphere and that its presence in South America reflects later migration southward.
  • fossil remains of the dinosaur species Aralosaurus were found in Kazakhstan after the Aral Sea started shrinking significantly.
  • Archidermapteron martynovi is an extinct species of earwig named for Andrey Vasilyevich Martynov, who conducted extensive studies of fossil insects in the Soviet Union.
  • Archiinocellia is the only snakefly fossil genus from British Columbia and one of only two from Canada.
  • German geologist Heinrich Edmund Naumann discovered a new species of fossil elephant in Japan.
  • a fossil plesiosaur skull named Kimmerosaurus may be the missing head of a Colymbosaurus.
  • a fossil specimen of Pelagosaurus was found with the remains of a Leptolepis in its stomach.
  • a fossilized delta in Eberswalde crater provides strong evidence for flowing water on Mars.
  • Trapalcotherium matuastensis is one of five species of mammals recognized among seven fossil teeth from the Cretaceous Allen Formation of Argentina.
  • Peltandra primaeva was the first fossil record for the genus Peltandra when described in 1977.
  • Augustasaurus' name comes from the mountain range of northwestern Nevada, where its fossilized bones were first discovered.
  • Leptofoenus pittfieldae is the only species of Leptofoenus documented from the West Indies and the only member of Leptofoenus in the fossil record.
  • Nanoraphidia electroburmica, known from a fossil in amber, is the smallest known snakefly species, living or extinct.
  • Ornatifilum is likely to be the oldest known fossil fungus.
  • Alexander Wetmore assessed the extinct Eonessa anaticula as being an ancient type of duck, possibly due to its fossil's resemblance to the modern Oxyura jamaicensis.
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